I was just going to post about the cardiologist at the beginning and the end. That COULD make it little less annoying that the shrapnel removal was handled like it meant nothing. Also, perhaps Tony didn't remember the doctor in question (who could've been cheesily the only guy on the planet to perform the surgery) in IM2, since IM3 was the movie he had to think about his 1999 convention more. This little thing made me dislike the end less, but yes, it still bothers me a little. That doctor is also very easy to miss both in the beginning and the end.

As for Tony using his calculations on EXTREMIS to himself...I don't know. If that's the case, A2 better give us something so we can feel better about this film. For me it's like many have said: at the same time very, very entertaining and also very upsetting.

As for Tony killing people...I don't mind. That "little bomb to the fountain to make sure that one guy surely drowns" was stupid, but blowing Killian's right hand guy's heart off, that was cool. I like that there's something for adults who want a little extra balls to the violence at times.

I've now watched the blu-ray 4 times, so it's at least a very rewatchable movie. I just can't love it, so much gripes. I watched IM1 again a couple of days ago, and so many things were done better:

- The suit. It had real damn mass. When he landed, it was either "CLUNK" or through the floor to the basement. When he punched people, they flew 50 feet from the impact. It wasn't a breakable toy. Remember that hit from the tank? You could "feel" it, it was so well done. Not comparing it just to mk42, other suits also got ripped apart too easily in IM3.

- The element of danger. I didn't feel it, not once. Perhaps a little in the helicopter attack scene which already was idiotic. In IM1, Tony was really in trouble. I felt the danger and the distress. He was more vulnerable in the first movie. Remember when his reactor got taken from his chest? It was a great scene. Almost full panic. That's one example, and not the only one. Suitless Stark in IM3 didn't accomplish that "he's more vulnerable now" - feeling. Not even once.

- Almost perfect balance of humor, drama, characters, action and pacing. And of course the soundtrack. One of the best combinations of all these I've ever seen in a superhero movie - especially for a first installment.

That isn't to say I hate IM3. I don't. There's much good in it. Shane Black knows how to entertain people and put up a good movie. If he only would've wanted to respect the already established "facts" from previous movies more instead of trying to be quirky and inventive and funny all the time (even though at times he succeeded), if he'd only be an Iron Man fanboy on some level, IM3 would've been great. Now it's just a strange mixture of love, hate, jaw-drop and facepalm.

The "I am Iron Man"-line, I liked it far better than if he'd said "I'm Tony Stark" which I was expecting. Suits are suits, he can always build more. He created a damn element, even. He is the Iron man.

This sums up my feelings pretty well, I can watch and enjoy IM3, but it leaves a bad aftertaste in a lot of ways. Plus I re-watched the 1st movie, and its just so much better, everything was done very well, and this is coming from someone who isnt a big fan of the 1st movie.

The sequels just seemed to lose sight of what he learned in the 1st movie for some reason, he also forgot the lesson/s that Yinsen taught him in the sequels as well.

How convenient that Tony was in the small town at the right time the bad guys were confiscating their file.

He gives a terrorist his home address and puts his unfinished suit on?

He doesn't see a missile coming to his house until he sees it on the news? He doesn't activate a home security system or any of the other 40 Iron Man suits in his basement, or have Jarvis call the police?

So Nick Fury calls Iron Man for coffee but doesn't show up when Iron Man is supposedly dead?

There's flame proof clothes?

His Iron Man suit runs out of power, I thought his arch reactor did that?

After Rhodey gets the President to safety he doesn't come back to help out Tony out in the fight?

How come the Iron Patriot suit is rendered useless after one of the bad guys grabs and heats up one of the suit's hand? While Rhodey was held captive hanging by chains in the suit, why didn't he reactivate the suit right there, the suit was no longer hot? The suit was just fine because once the bad guys got into it they were able to reactivate it and fly to Air Force One and kidnap the President!

The Iron Man suits on display in Tony's house blow up one after the other (consecutively) after one missile hits the first one.

Why didn't Tony get rid of the arch reactor in the first movie like he did in this one, the dangers of it in the second movie are now null and void!

I guess the presidente just didn't know how to put it to work, or maybe Tony put a special system for the suit to just work for certain people.

For Me Iron Man 3 has the distinction of being both the most entertaing of the MCU films and the one that possibly the one which has more elements that makes me a little angry, but on the whole it wasn't bad, and i wouldn't mind watching another Iron Man film like this.

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Quote:

Originally Posted by childeroland

Plenty of male-led action films fail, yet the actors' gender is not blamed. Why should it be different for women? Especially since far more male-led action films are made than female-led action films?

Agreed. I can forgive what they did to the Mandarin (if you focus on the fact that Killian really was the Mandarin) but the tone destroyed the movie for me. It was silly throughout. Humor is good but it was taken WAY too far in this. Iron Man shouldn't be as dark as the Nolan Batman films but it shouldn't be as goofy as a "Jingle All the Way". Also:

Lack of suit time

Use of Iron Patriot instead of War Machine (useless and lame change)

Tony's bodycount. Killing should be done when absolutely neccessary but should never be done gleefully ("Heal from that!")

Weak armor(s)

Love Iron Man. Liked Iron Man II. Hated nearly everything about Iron Man 3. I really wish I could enjoy the film as much as others seem to but Marvel is so much better than this.

And there you have THE HULK! Done 3 (!!!) friggin' times all over again, WHY? @ least THOR was good, THE AVENGERS was great! But who's to say the sequels won't fail?? As for Amazing SM, it was just alright and I doubt the sequel will be better.

Anyway, I enjoyed IM3 on some level, but it has weak points. A lot of them. I'm not saying THE BATMAN MOVIES of Nolan were perfect, but damn, they were ALL very good or great, even TDKR, none of them was "mediocre" or "OK" and I want Marvel to succeed, I really do, but I at some point, they manage to screw up somehow!

Yeah Nolan's trilogy was very good, TDKR had some problems but they were mostly technical and didn't affect the quality of the plot, and i still think it was better than Batman Begins (the film that turned me into a Batman fan by the way).

I think the major diference between Iron Man 2 and 3 is that 3 was more enjoyable and entertaining, every time i watch it i like it more, about StreetWarrior's criticism:

-Tony's suits don't make him, the whole films theme needed him to be like that and it worked very well, from the "you're smart, just build something" to "suits don't make me".
-They had to inside the film because the name sounded hostile, and there are still some good jokes about that inside the movie.
-It was just a one-liner, the kind we see in action movies all the time, and it's not as if Tony didn't usually kills those he found "deserving"
-Yeah i had that same problem too, but there's that explanation that maybe it was because he built them all in so few time.

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Quote:

Originally Posted by childeroland

Plenty of male-led action films fail, yet the actors' gender is not blamed. Why should it be different for women? Especially since far more male-led action films are made than female-led action films?

And there you have THE HULK! Done 3 (!!!) friggin' times all over again, WHY? @ least THOR was good, THE AVENGERS was great! But who's to say the sequels won't fail?? As for Amazing SM, it was just alright and I doubt the sequel will be better.

Anyway, I enjoyed IM3 on some level, but it has weak points. A lot of them. I'm not saying THE BATMAN MOVIES of Nolan were perfect, but damn, they were ALL very good or great, even TDKR, none of them was "mediocre" or "OK" and I want Marvel to succeed, I really do, but I at some point, they manage to screw up somehow!

So the the few "failures" discredit all the good films the company made?

So I finished watching this film again for the first time since I saw it in theaters in May and....I liked it a LITTLE bit more but still had problems with it. The first act is fantastic, everything leading up to the mansion attack is really wonderful stuff but then...the movie just becomes the RDJ Show, it just...did not feel like Tony Stark, it didn't feel like IRON MAN. Its not a bad movie by any means but it doesn't have that "magic" that IRONMAN 1 had.

So the the few "failures" discredit all the good films the company made?

No they don't, that is not what I was pointing out. They've made equally good films as disappointing ones. It's just that when you get a trilogy with one or two good movies, it's the one that gets screwed up majorly (Spidey 3, X3) and you are so disappointed that you can't even say that one single movie was good, because it's full of flaws and it kinda takes away from the trilogy as a whole in a way.

Also, this comparison of IM3 with Elektra is pretty stupid, people are disappointed, ok (on some level, even I was, I can't deny), but they are also blinded by hate to make such a comparison. I wouldn't even compare it to the letdown called Spider-Man 3, let alone the awful Elektra! IM3 had faults no doubt, but most of you here are IM fans, so of course you criticize it more. Someone who is not an Iron Man fan before seeing these films, wouldn't be so harsh.

Also , I like that RDJ did with Tony, he gave the character more color imo (still, it's no excuse for so many jokes in the movie, but I'm just saying).

Can't you people use any nicer words other than the word whining, it makes you people act like cyber bullies and besides the very reason the Mandarin in Iron Man 3 was terrible and made the film such a Let down is because the film makers refused to do the magic power rings thinking they wouldnt work and you want to know why?

Because ALL THEY CARED ABOUT WAS MONEY

and I'm thinking about going to war against Jon Favreau and everyone else involved with screwing up the Mandarin and get them to turn this whole thing around and get them to resume on a phase two with Mandarin as Trevor Slattery

Can't you people use any nicer words other than the word whining, it makes you people act like cyber bullies and besides the very reason the Mandarin in Iron Man 3 was terrible and made the film such a Let down is because the film makers refused to do the magic power rings thinking they wouldnt work and you want to know why?

Because ALL THEY CARED ABOUT WAS MONEY

and I'm thinking about going to war against Jon Favreau and everyone else involved with screwing up the Mandarin and get them to turn this whole thing around and get them to resume on a phase two with Mandarin as Trevor Slattery

There is NO WAY these movies are going to be exactly like the comics .
Changes should be expected .

Can't you people use any nicer words other than the word whining, it makes you people act like cyber bullies and besides the very reason the Mandarin in Iron Man 3 was terrible and made the film such a Let down is because the film makers refused to do the magic power rings thinking they wouldnt work and you want to know why?

Because ALL THEY CARED ABOUT WAS MONEY

and I'm thinking about going to war against Jon Favreau and everyone else involved with screwing up the Mandarin and get them to turn this whole thing around and get them to resume on a phase two with Mandarin as Trevor Slattery

When people whine, they whine. No use in sugar-coating it by not calling it what it is. Threatening to "go to war" against people at Marvel isn't helping your case at all.

But let me put it to you this way: When someone argues that a successful, critically-praised film is a disaster worse than one of the worst CBMs of all time, they are being ridiculous. It's one thing to disagree with creative decisions in a film and quite another to piss and moan about the filmmakers wanting to make money or threaten to wage some sort of war on them. Marvel's goal was to make a blockbuster film and they succeeded, probably beyond their wildest dreams. Changes had to be made to the Mandarin because quite a bit of his backstory is patently ridiculous. While magic rings from an alien dragon worked in the comics back in the 1960s, that wasn't going to fly today. An Extremis-powered villain hiding behind a terrorist front worked brilliantly in fin Fang Foom's absence.

I usually don't dump on films but this one deserves it. Listed in semi-chronological order.

1. The film should have led with "Mandarin" saying something about a heroes life in a TV spot...then into the flashback. Voiceovers suck.

2. The musical choices. I hated Blue when it came out and I can safely say I still hate that song. Jingle Bells remix was bad. The rock music was noticeably absent.

3. Christmas. How is this relevant to anything?

4. Why does the Mk. 42 fall apart so easily? Why is it even in pieces? Most pieces are simply armor, so what is the point of having them separate from other pieces?

5. The suit runs out of batteries . How does that work when all the pieces must have their own power source to fly around and **** but whatever.

6. The film tries to deal with too much social BS. The bully thing doesn't fit and should have been cut out completely. The only reason it is in is to show Tony giving the flash thing too Harley. This whole bit seemed forced.

7. Tony meets up with the soldier's mom who happens to have a file. What's in the file? Names and Pictures and the name AIM. Why does AIM want it? I have no idea. AIM has had presumably weeks if not months since this soldier exploded, why have they waited till now to go after this file? Are they just tie up potentially loose ends?Why did one of the test subjects have any information linking him to AIM? The file seems too convenient and I don't understand the actual point of it other than to make Tony fight without the suit.

8. Tony has a little hand held repulser blaster thingy he used on Savin. So you make Tony fight without his suit and then give him a trick from his suit to get out of trouble. Dumb.

9. Flame retardant clothing on Brandt. Charred and healing skin with strips of burnt clothing would have been cool and not shown actual skin but nope. Her clothing looked too clean after walking through fire.

10. War Machine getting owned. This was a good opportunity to show off the Extremis soldiers getting shot up and healing. It would have given Rhodey a real fight scene. I would rather have scene War Machine v an Extremis soldier than Tony without a suit v Brandt.

11. "The dungeon" scene. Tony tied to the bed frame trying to be funny waiting for his suit to show up...which shows up in pieces. The comedy was forced and the following fight scene had too many inept thugs who can't shoot. Give Tony the full armor and have him go nuts. Maybe even have him fight an Extremis soldier among the group.

12. Why did Killian give Pepper Extremis? He is trying to motivate Tony, right? If Pepper dies Tony won't play ball. If Pepper lives, she has Extremis. Neither of these outcomes are good for Killian. If Killian wants to simply inflict pain then he should just torture her like normal people would. Giving super powers to prisoners is like handing them a gun. Don't be stupid.

13. Rhodey is forced out of the Iron Patriot suit. Killian breathes fire and misses. Savin pushes Rhodey to the ground and knocks him out. And then they just leave Rhodey there to regain consciousness and come back for the final fight. What should have happened: Rhodey jumps out of the suit and attempts to run from the Extremis soldier who captured him. Rhodey is cornered but gets lucky during the fight and gets away. Maybe he uses some bit of knowledge he gained during the previous fight to escape. Savin just leaving him there unconscious without killing him was weak.

14. The Vice President conspiracy. I can't see a VP selling out because his granddaughter is missing a leg. The President is going to lose his life so your granddaughter can have a leg. This is treason and punishable by death.

15. The Savin v Iron Man fight could have been so cool but it was over in a flash of a unibeam. I loved Savin's cocky attitude and his strength and regeneration abilities means he could back it up. This fight would have been cool to show Iron Man beating up an Extremis soldier showing him as a clearly superior fighter to Rhodey and Extremis soldiers. Opportunity missed.

16. The Iron Patriot armor just doing whatever. I thought the suit would be pattered to only Rhodey. Instead, we see Savin pilot the suit and the President be transported and held hostage inside of it. What? Why can't the President use the suit? Why can Savin? Why is it as soon as Rhodey gets the President down he can walk around like the suit works just fine? Inconsistencies.

17. So you know where I said Rhodey should have fought an Extremis soldier in the suit and lose (10). Then he would fight the same soldier and get away (13). As Rhodey is trying to get to the President, this is where he should finally get to kill that bastard Extremis soldier who has been his nemesis all film. Instead, Rhodey has no real story arc. IM3 is probably an easier film to write and a better film without Rhodey.

18. Mandarin not dying the first time. This should have been Tony's kill.

19. Pepper killing Killian. "Oh my God! That was really violent." Yeah, we know this is out of character and just a dumb idea. Giving Extremis to Pepper was dumb and then having her be the hero was dumber still. At most, Pepper should have only destroyed an armor or two before Tony disables them, taking out Killian was too much.

The Mandarin twist works fine. It is a bit jarring but it makes sense. I wanted Kingsley to be the Mandarin but the think tank out-thinked us. The twist fell flat but at least it makes good sense.

SHIELD doesn't show up because the film takes place over the course of a couple days and Tony is supposed to be dead from the attack on his house through the end of the film. I'm sure SHIELD was tracking down the Mandarin and that's probably how Tony got such a detailed layout of the theatre attack scene. You can't just get that information unless someone scans the scene before it's cleaned up. SHIELD could do that. I think JARVIS even says he checked SHIELD database for information meaning they probably have tabs on him.

^^I loosely agree with a lot of your complaints. However....#16. Remember, A.I.M. designed the Iron Patriot or did upgrades, etc. Tony asked Rhodey that while looking at the file while driving.

Everytime I've watched the movie, I've heard Jarvis saying the databases he collected info from. But until you said it, I never thought of it when people have asked where S.H.I.E.L.D. was in all of this. Good catch on that!

AIM rebranded War Machine into Iron Patriot. They did not upgrade the software like Hammer did. But let's say AIM could control the suit, it's still odd that they could use the suit as a prison for the President. I like the optics (the President in the suit burning over oil) but it doesn't make any sense to me. Maybe if they showed some way of disabling the suit so it locks up and doesn't work without some reset. I didn't like how the suit did it's own thing even with a person inside.

The only thing that I was disappointed with was Killian's fire breath only being used once.

What a waste of an awesome super power.

Hell yeah, I was so bummed when Killian didn't use his fire breath against Iron Man. It could've been his counter attack for Iron Man's repulsor rays.

Quote:

Originally Posted by xeno000

When people whine, they whine. No use in sugar-coating it by not calling it what it is. Threatening to "go to war" against people at Marvel isn't helping your case at all.

But let me put it to you this way: When someone argues that a successful, critically-praised film is a disaster worse than one of the worst CBMs of all time, they are being ridiculous. It's one thing to disagree with creative decisions in a film and quite another to piss and moan about the filmmakers wanting to make money or threaten to wage some sort of war on them. Marvel's goal was to make a blockbuster film and they succeeded, probably beyond their wildest dreams. Changes had to be made to the Mandarin because quite a bit of his backstory is patently ridiculous. While magic rings from an alien dragon worked in the comics back in the 1960s, that wasn't going to fly today. An Extremis-powered villain hiding behind a terrorist front worked brilliantly in fin Fang Foom's absence.

I honestly felt Iron Man 3 was just to fast pace..it kept on jumping all over the place, I think it could of benefited without having the Tennessee part. Also thought the twist suffered it because we really didn't see the real villain really until the end of the film. There parts of it that were dope like mansion attack, air force 1 , and the finale. The first 40 minutes were awesome and towards the end was awesome..It was cool seeing Tony Stark solve problems being Tony Stark but it defeats the purpose of being an Iron Man film..he got smacked around to much for my liking.